Thread: "initializer element is not constant" error

I'm _not_ a C-anything programmer - sorry!
I'm just trying to fix some code so that it will compile.

It's choking here:

i3bws.c:49:1: error: initializer element is not constant

Line 49 is:

Code:

                                                                          
Hidden FILE *ws_fp= stderr;       /* where to print workspace name */     
                                  /* may be changed in initbws */

Is there any more info that I can add, for one of you fine C hackers to give me\
a clue as to how to fix this issue?

Much obliged for any help!
--
Duke

No the initializer is not a constant... it's another file pointer, that is created when the console opens it's stderr output stream.

You need to start it off as FILE *ws_fp = NULL; and then assign to it when you open a file.

I have no idea what the Hidden attribute is about.

Originally Posted by ssharish2005

With that much of your code, I cant really see a problem. You need to show us more!

I'm not sure what you want to see - it's a big project (The ABC programming language)

Here's more of the relevant "make" output:

Code:

make[1]: Entering directory `/home/dnormandin/Downloads/abc/bint3'
cc -O  -DNDEBUG -I../bhdrs -I../ihdrs -I../unix   -c -o i3bws.o i3bws.c
i3bws.c:49:1: error: initializer element is not constant
make[1]: *** [i3bws.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dnormandin/Downloads/abc/bint3'
make: *** [bint3] Error 2

Do you want to see all of "i3bws.c"?
--
Duke

Just a note of caution... the water is VERY deep at that end of the pool... modifying programming languages (esp: compilers) is some of the most difficult programming you can take on. And, in all respect, if you are having problems with simple file pointers...

I'm just trying to get the compiler's source code to compile on my machine. Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing this.

That fixed that issue! Thanks!

There more errors - can I post them?

Hidden FILE *errfile= stderr; /* may be changed in re_errfile() */

change it to:

Hidden FILE *errfile= NULL; /* may be changed in re_errfile() */

???

Originally Posted by dukester

Hidden FILE *errfile= stderr; /* may be changed in re_errfile() */

change it to:

Hidden FILE *errfile= NULL; /* may be changed in re_errfile() */

???

And then right after that do errfile = stderr; (unless you don't want to get any error messages any more).

(EDIT: I mean from your ABC thing, not from your compiler, naturally.)

@tabstop

Very cool! thanks ....

Originally Posted by quzah

I'm assuming that 'errfile' is global, which is the only reason it would complain about it not being constant. So inside main, assign it stderr before any actual statements happen.

I did what "tabstop" suggested, only to get:

Code:

warning: data definition has no type or storage class

So, if I guess that I need to declare the variable "errfile" with a data-type, right? - where ever I put the code. So what would be the proper declaration, please.
--
Duke

Originally Posted by dukester

I did what "tabstop" suggested, only to get:

Code:

warning: data definition has no type or storage class

So, if I guess that I need to declare the variable "errfile" with a data-type, right? - where ever I put the code. So what would be the proper declaration, please.
--
Duke

If you haven't yet, you need to read Quzah's post -- since this involves actual code, it has to appear inside a function. re_errfile() may or may not be a good place -- the comment certainly suggests that errfile might change there; so depending on how it's written that could be an option.

Originally Posted by tabstop

And then right after that do errfile = stderr; (unless you don't want to get any error messages any more).

(EDIT: I mean from your ABC thing, not from your compiler, naturally.)

Actually he's working on a compiler ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_(programming_language)